Spin (10/98, pp.148-149) - 9 (out of 10) - "...a gloriously giddy traipse through ethnodelic soundscapes and a much more succulent Fourth World montage than CANAXIS. Two years in the making, MOVIES develops the slicker, funkier side of the multiflavored Can..."

The Wire (p.62) - "The result of many hours pleasurably tinkering in the studio, MOVIES is the work of a musician in a great mood."

The Wire (3/98, pp.53-4) - "...It's a carefully constructed, macaronic work of designer sounds in which are embedded the outpourings of mass media straining for expressivity....as engaging as anything on Can's last half dozen albums..."

Album Notes

Personnel: Jaki Liebezeit (drums, percussion).

Though Can bassist and cofounder Holger Czukay held up the low-end in the group's unsurpassable rhythm section, he was also the architect of Can's seminal sound in more subtle ways. A student of preeminent avant-garde composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, Czukay was constantly experimenting with tapes and with non-traditional musical implements like radios and Dictaphones. His Futurist fiddlings eventually forced Can to surrender bass duties to Rosko Gee as Czukay manned an increasingly complex arsenal of primitive sampling equipment.

Czukay abandoned the group after 1979's CAN and has been extremely active since, working with a multigenerational cross-section of musical movers and shakers. He was at a creative peak as he worked on his solo debut, MOVIES, between 1977-1979. Recruiting the rest of the contemporary Can for reassuringly familiar instrumental support, Czukay created four remarkable progressive "pop" songs. More importantly, he virtually invented the art of sampling, interspersing splices of taped Arabic music, musique concrete noises, and film dialog amid the exquisite rhythms and melodies of "Cool in the Pool" and "Persian Love." He also contributes his breathy, mad-scientist wail, riding the band-surfing grooves of "Hollywood Symphony" like a rodeo clown. Czukay may have agonized over MOVIES for years, but the result is a timeless statement.